Building the world's most powerful laser

[Chico Man]

"That's the precision we have to have," says Moses, the director of a high-energy physics adventure to produce the world's most powerful laser -- one that scientists hope will create in a laboratory the type of energy found at the center of the sun.

The trip will take one-thousandth of a second during which the light's energy is amplified many billions of times to create a brief laser pulse 1,000 times the electric generating power of the United States.

The goal is to create unimaginable heat -- 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (82 million Celsius) -- and intense pressure from all directions on a BB-size hydrogen fuel pellet, compressing it to one-thirtieth of its size.

ummmm.. this sounds kind of dangerous? Hello? Moses?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/23/super.laser.ap/index.html

[leveymg]

1. "I have become Shiva, destroyer of worlds"

Famous last lines, or so Oppenheimer thought at the first A-bomb test when he wasn't sure whether the thing would actually set the world's atmosphere on fire.

First time, lucky.

[sweetheart]

3. In the gita's chapter 11

Krishna reaveals himself to Arjuna as the godhead itself and
says the quote you mention: (pardon this translation is not so
smoothe from the sanskrit)

Thou seest Me as Time who kills,
Time who brings all to doom,
The Slayer Time, Ancient of Days, come hither to consume;
Excepting thee, of all these hosts of hostile chiefs arrayed,
There stands not one shall leave alive the battlefield! Dismayed
No longer be! Arise! obtain renown! destroy thy foes!
Fight for the kingdom waiting thee when thou hast vanquished those.
By Me they fall- not thee! the stroke of death is dealt them now,
Even as they show thus gallantly; My instrument art thou!

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gita/bg11.htm

In it he says, that he is time itself (kala), that will consume the
world and all things... all things. He then advises arjuna to pick
up his weapon and get out there to fight for enlightenment and justice
for his kind (in so many words), as the warriors he faces cannot
be killed by him, as they are already dead by time itself... and
that he is merely an agent.

It really is a lovely book.

[4_Legs_Good]

2. All you'd need is a tracking system and a large rotating mirror

and you could vaporize someone from space...



daivd

[KittyWampus]

7. Is That True Or Are You Making Fun?

:think:

[Ratty]

11. Nah. That wouldn't work

Nah. Problem is the atmosphere absorbs all the really wicked wavelengths. It'd be just a puny wisp of a beam by the time it reached the ground. People have talked about multi-beam approaches. Several beams fired right on top of one another. The first two heat up the atmosphere and make a vacuum "hole" in the air for the last one to travel through.

Ah, it's all science fiction. The laser here is the size of several football fields. That'd be pretty hard to lift into space.

[4_Legs_Good]

12. Sorry! It's a line from the movie "Real Genius"

Where some grad students unwittingly create a laser ("that's hotter than the sun") which the professor is on contract to the military to develop.

No idea if it would actually work, though...

david

[Javaman]

4. Wow, talk about timing, huh?

Between this and having orbital weapons platforms, they now will be able to fry your brain from space! Isn't that just peachy.

Edit: I avoided the obvious death star reference, thank you very much! :)

[XemaSab]

5. Or the Austin Powers reference,

which is in turn basically a star wars reference.

DR. EVIL: Gentlemen, phase three. We place a giant laser on the moon. Let me demonstrate.

(beat) Where's my laser?



Dr. Evil looks around and sees Mini-Me gnawing on the model laser. Dr. Evil takes it from his mouth



DR. EVIL: Mini-Me, don't chew my laser.

(to room) Not feeling well. He has an ear infection, but it's OK.

(pause) No? Nothing?

(back to model) Anyway, the laser is powerful enough to destroy every city on the planet at will. We'll turn the moon into what I like to call a "Death Star".

[jayctravis]

10. Make sure you read it with

"La-Ser" in quotes.

"Mini-Me, stop humping the laser!"

[Ian David]

6. Finally, I will be able to fit all my luggage in the overhead compartment!

[KittyWampus]

8. Sounds Like A Colossal Waste Of Money. Humanity Needs To Investigate

energy that comes not from combustion but the exact opposite.

[Ian David]

9. Good uses for giant laser

1) Initiate Nuclear Fusion to generate power
2) Power interstellar Solar Sail craft
3) Transmit "We Are Here" signal as part of an "Optical SETI" program
4) Deflect dangerous asteroids
5) Launch laser-powered craft through the atmosphere
6) Zap sattelits in orbit
7) Zap Airplanes, missiles, or just about any other flying object
8) Measure the distance to the moon